Trying to verify my age on #Bluesky Once again a piece of software deems my face not to be a legitimate 'face' so I cannot progress. I am 58 and this is the only face I have, but this is now the second system that fails to recognise it as such. It is not as if I can use my 'spare' face instead!

So exhausting..

Opportunity here for a writer on a low income to get access to a nine week novel writing course taught by the great @silvanhistorian.bsky.social

www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/course/break...

This has been clear for years. I am always surprised when anyone expresses their surprise at how 'sticky' inflation is in the UK, when you have so many unavoidable utility costs being consistently price gouged to pay high dividends, salaries and bonuses.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

For my latest novel I have gone back into the Magic Realism genre. 'The Obscured' is set among the community of the Obscured in contemporary UK and Pakistan. It was influenced by Christopher Priest's 'The Glamour', but seeking to explore the challenges for such people facing 2020s technology.

@spoonieauthnet.bsky.social
#SpoonieAuthChat

Just to proudly say I completed the first draft of my magic realism novel 'The Obscured' this evening. I am now going to have a sleep.

#SuellaBraverman reminding all us #AlternateHistory authors that we have a lot of competition from politicians on both sides of the Atlantic!
metro.co.uk/2025/01/02/s...

#books
I am very pleased to announce the release of 3 of my
#AlternateHistory
novels via Sea Lion Press:
'The Hated Chapters' - www.amazon.com/Hated-Chapte...
'The Loyal Pursuit' - www.amazon.com/Loyal-Pursui...
'Taken in Lycia' - www.amazon.com/Taken-Lycia-..

Yes, I wrote analysis of 'what if?' Lincoln had not been assassinated in 'Other Lives' and we can easily argue that if John Wilkes Booth had missed or been stopped, many (not all) of the USA's current problems would be less than they are. It was a 'butterfly' moment, notably due to Andrew Johnson.

And the USA is literally one of the only countries in the world who had a head of state who had been made disabled by a disease which, when vaccinated against, disappears from society. Does no-one in the USA study the life of President Franklin Roosevelt any more?

Nov 9, 1938: Kristallnacht (Pogromnacht)
Paul Sullivan on the day the Nazis committed the worst pogrom in Germany since the Middle Ages…

www.slowtravelberlin.com/nov-9-1938-k...

If any of you are around #Aberdeen tonight (Friday 25th October), I hope you will be coming to Nocturne Market V www.facebook.com/events/pitto...
Entry is free.
Dr. Festerstein's Dark Tomes book stall will be there.
www.facebook.com/DrFesterstei...

#FirstDraftFall Pleased to announce the first draft of 'Each Brother's Shadow' is now complete, coming in at just over 101,000 words. Not bad for a book I started writing this May. As usual, I will now set it aside to 'mature' for some months before revisiting it.

Early best wishes for everyone marking the 958th anniversary of the #BattleofHastings tomorrow and the reason why we are not communicating in a language much closer to Danish.

Perth: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pictcon1-t...